Viewpoint (Genesis) review

"Since the Genesis is home to a bijillion shoot-em-ups, it really takes something interesting to make one of these titles stand out from the crowd; Divine Sealing has a "women feel pain when their clothes get removed" gimmick, Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor has whatever the hell that game was known for, and in this case, Viewpoint has a unique perspective. Unfortunately, this game's selling point ends up screwing with the gameplay, making a rather average shoot-em-up pr..."

Since the Genesis is home to a bijillion shoot-em-ups, it really takes something interesting to make one of these titles stand out from the crowd; Divine Sealing has a "women feel pain when their clothes get removed" gimmick, Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor has whatever the hell that game was known for, and in this case, Viewpoint has a unique perspective. Unfortunately, this game's selling point ends up screwing with the gameplay, making a rather average shoot-em-up pretty tough to deal with.

So, what is your pilot, who's navigating a slow moving, yet powerful ship, the Byupo fighter, fighting for? Justice? Peace? Awesomeness? Well, I don't have a friggin clue, so I was left to assume that you took control of an intergalactic psychopath who gets off on causing genocide on unknown planets filled with eccentric environments and bizarre roboforms. Just imagine him laughing his ass off as he tears through an army of robotic fish, most likely defending their Atlantis-esque home from this crazyass mothertrucker. Or witness his puny ship destroy a row of giant, powerful bosses in a freakin lava river stage while listening to a funky James Brown-inspired track on his radio, screaming such lyrics as "HEYYYY!!" and "BABBBYYYY!!". It's evil I tell ya! Evil!!

But despite how dementedly fun that sounds, VP is far from enjoyable. The whole thing just reeks of a typical shoot-em-up: your ship can shoot normal and powered shots, can get an upgrade, throws bombs, and fight opponents that come at it in patterns. I know, I basically described 99% of shmups, but the problem with VP is that it doesn't do anything significant with any of this stuff; it's just there, making the shooter a shooter.

Then there are the flaws that make the game harder than it should be, like the ship's slow navigation. It's as if you're trying to move a damn.... something that moves slow. When your "enemies" bounce around the screen at twice the speed as your Byupo fighter, you can understand the pain in the ass it'll cause you. Then there's the other problem: the viewpoint. Unlike normal shoot-em-ups that use a vertical or horizontal angle, VP has to act retarded, like Axelay, and experiment with a different angle. Set in an isometric perspective like Landstalker and Sonic 3D Blast, it causes a lot of disruptions in the gameplay, especially when there are bullets on screen.

An example of this buffoonery is made the moment you play the first stage: one of the first things you encounter is a giant, robotic fan (probably just cleaning the streets, minding its own business, until your ship attacked it. bastard) that litters the screen with bullets. You dodge and dodge, avoiding every bullet that comes your way..... then you get hit by one that you thought was gonna pass you, and it was all thanks to the awkward angle. This pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the game.

The Xbox Live Arcade library has a surprising number of shoot 'em ups. Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, Sine Mora, Raystorm HD, Trouble Witches, and so on. Instead of those, I chose to review Triggerheart Exelica. Because oh well...

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